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Month: June 2013

We all face some form of conflict every day. From navigating traffic to deciding what to watch on TV after a long day. Most of these are “flash-pan” conflicts that are usually forgotten in minutes and ostensibly have no bearing on our lives. Unfortunately, conflicts do not exist in a vacuum; many factors can affect …

First and foremost is Communication. This may seem obvious, but the devil lay in the details. Communication is more than a relay of information. Many things impact communication: Choice of words Volume Proximity Sarcasm Language, culture, nationality, etc Medium (letter, email, in person, etc) External noises Social media (facebook, twitter, reddit, etc) Body language Relationship …

Trust is easy to lose and difficult to gain. Regaining trust is even more difficult. Mistakes in communication can chip away at trust and trust building. Once trust is tarnished, conflicts see barren terrain through which to run wild. Escalation soars with mistrust. Some say there are many levels of trust: you trust the banker …

Emotion is the known-unknown influence. We know emotions are always involved in conflict. Just which emotions, and how strong they are, is difficult to actually calculate. This is where communication and trust can help. When emotions are involved, they can override the controls that gauge communication and trust. Open communication and strong trust help manage …

If someone in traffic yells a barrage of obscenities at you, you may get angry, chalk it up to that person being a so-and-so, and go on with your day. But if your spouse yells at you, then you may feel differently. The difference is the Relationship you have with the stranger (none) and your …

Even when you can recognize and manage these influences effectively, there is still the issue of Context. We are all connected to a complex world. Situations are rarely, if ever, independent. Influences on situations can be large, small, obvious or covert. A customer yelling at a waiter for dropping a drink may not realize that …

Sometimes you have to wait for the appropriate opportunity to tackle a problem, and this brings up another factor that can make conflicts worse: Anticipation. That same manager knows s/he has to address the employee sometime and with each passing hour the anticipation grows. Give the mind time to imagine what can go wrong and …

–To better understand the arguments behind Craft v. Crafty, see links at the end– There is a heated debate between a few large breweries (AB-InBev, MillerCoors, etc) and more than two thousand small breweries across the U.S. and some other countries. To get a quick outline of the situation, the large breweries bring in about …

Last week, Magic Hat and West Sixth breweries reached a settlement of a trademark dispute without going to court. According to initial reports, a magistrate judge served as mediator and the official dispute ended within a week. We applaud both parties for choosing mediation to seek a mutually agreeable solution and avoid expensive, drawn out …

PIONEERING GARMENT SECTOR INITIATIVE COMES TO A CLOSE Our friends at Meta-Culture in Bangalore, India have announced the conclusion of their 2-year dialogue with the GSR. Facilitation of this magnitude, length, reach, and number and diversity of participants is a remarkable accomplishment, requiring time, patience, finances and ongoing learning on behalf of all involved. OvalOptions …